Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Charming and 'Smart'

By Sarah Poulton

During the final credits of “Get Smart,” I walked out of the theater with incredibly mixed feelings.

I thought to myself, the acting was good, the story line was good, but there was something about it that left a disturbingly disappointing taste in my mouth.

The film is set in the present time, many years after CONTROL — the secret government agency that was set up to combat KAOS — had supposedly been disbanded. It was inconsistent with the TV series, which ran from 1965 to 1970, because in the beginning of the movie, Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) was an analyst, not an agent.

In the movie, after the identity of every CONTROL agent was compromised during a break-in, Smart was promoted and became Agent 86. He was then teamed up with partner (and eventual wife in the series) Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway).

From there, the two travel to Russia where KAOS has planned to take control of nuclear weapons and distribute them across the globe in hopes of destroying the United States. Their travels and triumphs quickly become a pissing contest as to who is the most capable agent.

Both Carell and Hathaway fit their roles and played off each other with wit and humor. At times, I thought I was watching series’ stars Don Adams and Barbara Feldon on the screen, until I remembered I wasn’t watching Nickelodeon reruns and I was no longer 9 years old. But, while they were similar to the originals, enough time had passed that the two lead actors could define the roles as their own.

It was fun to watch, but not necessarily funny, which is where the disappointment comes from. “Get Smart” is categorized as a comedy, but the overall humor of the film could be compared to that of a children’s movie. The writers did, however, manage to crack a few jokes on President Bush, which would make any American, Bush supporter or not, chuckle.

Mention must also be made of Agent 23 (Dwayne Johnson), previously known as The Rock from the WWE. His character seemed as if it were created especially for him as he went though the entire movie with the Rock’s own charming, likable, yet sometimes cocky demeanor.

I would suggest anyone who was a fan of the series, or spy movies in general, to give “Get Smart” a chance, if for no other reason, than to watch an OK-looking guy win the heart of an incredibly attractive woman because, as the saying should go, nice guys don’t always finish last.